Backgammon, a board game, has traditionally been played by two persons. The backgammon playing board used for this ancient game is arranged with 24 positions or playing points over which the players alternately move their respective 15 men, pieces or stones according to the roll of dice. The board itself is divided into four quadrents or "tables", with two tables per side and six triangular points per table. The basic object of the game is to be the first player to remove all of his pieces from the table. The pieces of the two players are moved in opposite directions around the board. Initially, each player has eight pieces on his home side or home table and seven pieces on the opposite side or outside table.
The prior art shows attempts to permit backgammon to be played by more than two people at one time. One means of achieving this is known as chouette. In this variation of backgammon, however, not all of the players are of equal status and the game becomes more of a team, not individual, effort.
Other means of achieving play by more than two people are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,212 granted Nov. 7, 1978; U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,319 granted Nov. 15, 1977; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,318 granted Nov. 15, 1977. All of these patents permit the inclusion of more than 2 but not greater than 4 players of equal status. This increase, however, usually required a significant distortion of the traditional and simple backgammon game board. U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,318 allows more than two players by doubling the traditional gameboard size from 24 points to 48 points.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,085,319 permits more than two players by increasing board size from 24 up to 60 playing points and by completely rearranging the layout of the backgammon quadrents or tables.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,212 also increases the playing points from 24 to 45 so as to allow for more than two players. This prior art also significantly rearranges the layout of the backgammon gameboard quadrents or tables, and further, redesigned the traditionally shaped triangularly shaped playing points into diamond-like designs. These changes, in toto, are so profound as to render this gameboard virtually unrecognizable as a backgammon gameboard and also make it cumbersome in play.
Now there is provided by the present invention a multi-player backgammon game which eliminates the complex and cumbersome play of prior art multi-player games, while retaining the character of the traditional two-player game. This new and unique gameboard allows more than two people to play backgammon within the context of traditional backgammon play without having to acquaint oneself with a confusing table arrangement or contend with an inordinately large and confusing number of pieces on the gameboard.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a backgammon game which allows for the simultaneous playing of up to four people and yet which includes the convenience in gameboard layout and ease of understanding of the traditional two player backgammon gameboard.
It is another object of this invention to provide a gameboard for the simultaneous playing of backgammon by up to four people without having any of the four people team-up and wherein all of the players are of equal status and wherein traditional backgammon strategies may be used.
It is a further object of this invention to provide for a backgammon game which will accomodate up to four players with only 40 playing pieces at 10 pieces per player without the confusion and clutter created by the up to 60 playing pieces present in the prior art.
It is another object of this invention to provide a backgammon game which simultaneously accomodates up to four players and, which for ease of identification, both the gameboard and playing pieces are coordinately color coded.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide a backgammon game which when played with a chouette variation, accomodates simultaneously up to 10 players.
The aforesaid as well as other objects and advantages will become apparent from a reading of the following specification, the adjoined claims and the accompanying drawings.